The start of a new arc!
Enjoy!
Nightmare 4.1
Tayl—no Boogeyman, she was Boogeyman, double checked to make sure that she had everything that she needed. This wasn't something that she could afford to screw up. One misstep and she would be dead and half the city could be on fire by morning. The yellow-eyed cape turned her gaze to the mannequin and suit in the corner alongside the small portion of drugs that she had taken when she destroyed the Merchants. Part of her regretted that she needed any at all and that she didn't just destroy it with the rest, but the rest of her knew that this is what she would need to take down Lung.
Lung.
Boogeyman would be lying if she didn't feel the smallest amount of dread at the thought of facing the man. For all that she talked about how he had failed against Leviathan, he was still a formidable opponent, one that got stronger over time. That was the ultimate irony of Lung, let him rampage and people die. Try to stop him and even more people die. A direct conflict would only strengthen the parahuman, so Taylor was going to take a…different approach.
It was risky, but she had been preparing for this for some time now, setting the battlefield and mapping out every location of the ABB that she could find when she wasn't having her minions terrorize the Empire or Merchants. This is why she had been ignoring the ABB for the most part while she focused on the Empire and searched for Coil. She was going to gut the ABB like a fish.
The door to the warehouse creaked open as her new partner slipped through. Victoria…Boogeyman had to wonder if she was the right choice for her new partner. She had the desire to see justice brought down on the criminals that deserved it. But she was just so…so friendly.
The last friend that Boogeyman had stabbed her in the back and was the result of pretty much every bad thing that had happened to her since. It was a small wonder that she was just a tiny bit wary of someone trying to be friendly with her now. But Victoria just didn't seem to care. She plowed on through any arguments like a bulldozer, and it wasn't as if she could just terrify her partner into submission, no matter how much she wanted to.
Even after only a few hours, she had found herself at the mercy of Victoria's fashion sense. Fortunately, she had an excuse as to why she couldn't join her on her little shopping trip, but that still didn't make the aftermath any less bearable.
"So, which black do you think looks better on me?" Victoria asked as she held up two black long sleeved shirts. Boogeyman stared at one, then slowly turned her head to stare at the other one. After a long silence, she turned her gaze up to Victoria's amused expression.
"They're exactly the same," she said in a dull tone. Victoria shook her head as if she was a child who didn't understand what was going on.
"No," she said with an eye roll as she held the shirt in her left hand up. "This one is a shade black a little closer to gray, and this one," she said, holding up the other shirt, "is a shade black a little closer to white. So, which one do you like more?"
"…I think I'm starting to regret bringing you in."
"Don't worry Tay, we'll be best of friends!"
"…Yes, that's definitely regret."
Still, despite the rather mind-numbing experience of being explained how all the different blacks worked together, she was having fun. It had been so long since she could talk to someone that wasn't an embodiment of someone's fear, and it was quite refreshing. It reminded her of her time with Emma before, well, everything happened.
She banished thoughts of her traitorous friend out of her mind, though she did make a note to check in on how her trial was doing. She had heard on the news that she had been officially charged and had pleaded not guilty, but even a fool could see that it was a stalling tactic. There was just too much evidence against her. It had been amusing to see the girl that had thrived in the spotlight cowering in on herself as dozens of cameras tried to get an image of her.
"Did you get it?" Boogeyman asked as she eyed the box Victoria was carrying.
"Yeah, managed to find one almost like the one you wanted, but I couldn't find an exact match," she said as she handed the box over to the taller parahuman. Boogeyman tore the box open and grinned at the sight of the Fedora before her. Victoria was right, it wasn't quite the one that she wanted, but it was more than similar enough to do the job.
"I still don't understand how a fedora is supposed to beat Lung," Victoria admitted, shifting a little on her feet with nervous anticipation as Boogeyman set the fedora on top of the lifeless mannequin.
"It's not," she said as she adjusted the Fedora a little. "But then again, my intention was never to beat Lung."
That clearly threw the girl for a loop, eyes blinking in surprise. "What?"
"To fight Lung is to accept his battlefield," Boogeyman explained as she took a step back from the mannequin, giving it a once over. It was hardly a lifelike impersonation, but for what she wanted it would be more than enough. "That's where he is the strongest, and only fools fight when their enemies are strong."
"But as long as Lung is on the streets we won't be able to take down the ABB," Victoria protested, losing her control over her aura in a flash of anger. Boogeyman let the false emotions wash over her like the tide against the shore, casting them aside with little more than a flicker of thought.
"Lung is strong," she admitted, turning around to face the now irate girl. She was floating a few inches off the ground now, trying to make herself look a bit larger in comparison to her. Boogeyman had to hold back a smile at the sight of one of the most basic scare tactics to exist.
Weak.
"But Lung cannot be everywhere," she explained, carefully trying to ignore that dark little voice in the back of her head. "He cannot strike down every interloper that invades his territory. That is why he maintains Oni-Lee as a subordinate despite him killing every other Asian parahuman that once held allegiance to the gangs prior to his arrival."
It was perhaps the greatest of ironies that Lung's arrival to the city had been one of the best things to happen to the Empire. The previous scattered Asian gangs had hated each other just as much as they had hated the Empire and spent most of the time quarreling amongst themselves. Despite the Empire's propaganda, those gangs had been no threat towards the Empire. It had not been until Lung's arrival that the Empire had a real enemy that they could rally against so that they could convince the people to join them to fight the beast.
Fear was always so much easier to cultivate when there really was a monster at your door.
"So, he needs Oni-Lee?" Victoria asked head cocked to the side like a confused puppy. It was easy to understand her confusion. The thought of Lung needing anyone to assist him was an almost ludicrous idea. This was the man who had the entire local Protectorate to a standstill and was able to hold his own against an Endbringer. "Does this mean you're going after Oni-Lee?"
Boogeyman shook her head. "While I'm not opposed to removing Oni-Lee from the playing field, he moves too quickly to pin down. We wouldn't be able to get him unless we ambushed him or engaged in a long fought out battle. No, we're going to show Lung that for all his power, he is weak, useless."
"And that's supposed to bring down the ABB?" Victoria asked with a skeptical look.
Fool.
Boogeyman chuckled at Victoria's nativity. For all that she used fear in her methods, she was still very much an amateur. "Do you know how to make fear?"
"What?" Victoria blinked, thrown off by the non-sequitur.
"There are a lot of ways to inspire fear, but there's one in particular that I'm going to use against Lung," Boogeyman said, taking the tone she had often heard her— no, Taylor's mother— take when lecturing to students. "Fear of the unknown will always be the greatest fear of all, the kind that can topple nations and empires."
The kind that can desolate the universe.
"I'm going to take away Lung's greatest certainty. His strength, his ability to destroy any problem that comes along his path. I will strip that illusion of strength from him and reveal to him the truth, that he is weak and vulnerable," Boogeyman said with a grin. "For the first time in years, he will not be a hundred percent confident in himself. He will be afraid and uncertain as to what he is going to do."
"But, how are you going to do that? It's not like Lung hasn't failed to kill people before. And somehow, I doubt him failing to kill you will be any different," Victoria said, arms crossed in mild skepticism.
"No," Boogeyman agreed a smile dancing across her lips. Whatever fools on the internet claimed that Glory Girl was nothing more than an empty head were idiots. "But if there happened to be a massive strike against the ABB during our conflict by me, one that he fails to stop or mitigate in any meaningful fashion…"
"You're going to be using him as a distraction," Victoria said, understanding lighting up in her eyes like a bonfire. "Using him to cover the fact that you're attacking his holdings."
"Lung can fight all he wants, but it is useless unless if he has nothing left to fight for," she said with a grin. She would tear away the dragon's horde right out from beneath his nose. And not even all the rage in the world would even begin to help him claim it back.
"…But, that still wouldn't be enough to make him afraid," Victoria said slowly, pursing her lips in thought. There was certainly fear there, he was Lung after all, but it was a contemplative type of fear. The kind that made you question the world around you in search for an answer that made sense.
"True," Boogeyman admitted. "But fear does not have to be brought down in a single blow. It can easily be a death of a thousand paper cuts, each blade whittling away a little more at Lung's confidence and ego until nothing is left but an empty shell."
She could still feel Victoria's own uncertainty on the matter bubbling beneath the skin. She could hear the older girl's heart pound in terror at a memory of Lung, silver scales gleaming in his wrathful fires as the entire world seemed to burn around him. His face so far gone into the transformation that there was nothing human left about him, just a pair of cold angry eyes that wanted to see them all burn.
"Taylor," she said, and Boogeyman tried really hard not to flinch at the use of her old name. She had been doing her best to distance herself from being Taylor Hebert. Taylor had been a good girl who had tried to live with all the horrors in the world, even if they had come from her friends. Boogeyman wasn't like that. She wasn't going to roll over for anyone if anything people were starting to roll over for her. She had found a small group of Empire wannabees and made them literally void their bowels with her mere presence. They had given up after that.
But Victoria, she didn't care about that. Even when she was downright terrified of her she would refer to her by her old name, her old self. She kept speaking as if she could still be Taylor Hebert as if somehow, she could still be who she was after all the bloodshed she had wrought. There was no going back after that.
"I-I just don't know if this is going to work," she admitted, twisting a lock of her golden hair in concern. "Lung, Lung won't get afraid. He'll just burn everything to the ground and move on with his life. People – monsters – like him, they don't get scared."
Boogeyman blinked in surprise. Then she started laughing. It was a true laugh, the kind that shook your bones and made your breath faint as you desperately gasped for air. Not that Boogeyman needed to breathe, but the roar of her laughter made little difference in the end. She could feel Victoria's anger and frustration building as she started to calm down.
"Is that what you think?" Boogeyman asked through a series of light giggles.
"Well, yeah," she said, though her tone wasn't as nearly as certain as it had been a few moments ago. Boogeyman just continued to chuckle, stoking the latent anger of Victoria.
"Monsters are born from fear Victoria, that's why they become monsters," Boogeyman explained with a slight smile. "For all the anger that Lung might hold at the very core of his being is a man that is afraid. He fears being powerless, of death and his ruin. Kaiser shared this fear in a different shade, fearing loss of control above all else. Their fear has driven them into becoming the monster that they are now."
Victoria stared at her with a contemplative expression, her mind moving at a thousand miles per minute. "So… people break the law because they're afraid?"
Boogeyman shrugged her shoulders, "At the core of it yes. Strip away the reasoning and at the core of every argument is a fear or terror that drives their actions. A man who turned criminal because he feared not having enough money, a woman who fled CPS because she feared for her child. These are all shades of fear, but a mere shadow of the kind that makes monsters."
"And—and what makes monsters?" Victoria asked, her voice small and uncertain. She could feel the wariness rolling off of her in waves, wanting to know the answer but at the same time wanted to remain ignorant.
"A fear so great and powerful that it consumes all that they were and will be," Boogeyman said, her lips curling into distaste. She knew that she herself had allowed her own fear to command her, which was not something that she could easily admit. Fear of being chained and trapped by an authority content to let the world whittle away so long as they could keep their castle. Fear of everything that her father and mother had worked towards, a brighter future of the Bay, being ground into the dust and ash. At the very least she directed her fear towards a more productive outcome unlike those that hoarded power like gold.
"They allow themselves to be defined by their fear and are willing to sacrifice anything or anyone in order keep themselves away from it. They would burn the world if it kept them safe," Boogeyman said, her humor fading from her tone. "I suppose the Slaughterhouse would be the best example of this."
"The Slaughterhouse Nine!" Victoria screeched, pure panic causing her form to tremble like a leaf on the wind. "They're-they're afraid?" Boogeyman would have been able to hear the disbelief in her tone even without her emotion sense. She smirked at the girl's doubt. The Slaughterhouse 9 was one of the worst parahuman kill gangs on the continent. They sowed terror and death in their wake. To come to know that everything they did was out of their own fear and terror would certainly be contrary to what most people believed.
"The Slaughterhouse are afraid, more so than even most monsters. They drench themselves in it, killing thousands in order to gain one second of relief from the terror that nips at their heels. The fear that gnaws at the very core of themselves. They have allowed them to be defined by their fear and nothing else, constantly seeking relief amongst the slaughter. They are fools of course, as the path they have chosen will lead to nothing but their ruination," Boogeyman let out an amused chuckle, "Ironic that they have chosen the very path that will never allow them to relinquish their fear."
She wasn't quite sure how she knew this given that she had never met the Slaughterhouse before, but she supposed that she had read enough reports on PHO to read between the lines so to speak. Of course, talking about those losers granted her nothing at the moment other than the terror of her teammate. And while it was a sweet snack, it was hardly the fear that she wanted.
"At any rate, let me assure you Victoria, Lung does fear," Boogeyman said. "Though I will admit that the nature of his power will make him more difficult to bring low than most, I have a special surprise for him that will help build the foundation that I need."
"You mean all of this?" Victoria asked, gesturing towards the dressed-up mannequin. Boogeyman supposed she could understand how thinking a set of clothes would be able to scare Lung would be a ludicrous idea if they didn't know what she knew.
Several Weeks Ago…
Taylor supposed it was ironic that even after getting powers people didn't even notice her. She was nothing more than a ghost walking along the street, unseen and uncared for by all. She couldn't even touch them, passing through them as if she were made of air. It felt unnatural, like dunking her insides in cold water.
She didn't even bother trying to go home to see Dad. The thought of him not being able to see her made her feel as if her heart was in a vice. Besides, he would probably be better off without her. It wasn't as if they had had a very close relationship these past few years. Not since Mom died at the very least.
She wasn't even sure where she was supposed to go now. Not home, that was for certain. But it wasn't as if there was anywhere left for her to be. Emma had long since renounced her friendship and the bullying had put a crimp in making any new friends. So, all that was left for her to do was wander the streets of Brockton Bay until the sun came up and forced her back into the shadows.
She wasn't sure how far she had walked, she had long ago stopped paying attention when she felt it. A fear so great that it burned at the very soul, a gnawing cancer at the very core. It had taken her some time to realize that she had been feeling people's fears and terrors, and it was more than a little uncomfortable. To have a stranger's darkest secrets laid out before her like an open book twisted her the wrong way. It reminded her too much of Emma's torments to make her comfortable
Even though every drop of terror felt like an energy drink.
But this fear, this made all of that embers in the breeze. Taylor peeked her head around the corner to get a glimpse of the source of this wellspring of terror. Her heart would have skipped a beat if it had still been working at the towering sight before her.
The man was a veritable mountain of muscle, a solid slab of flesh and bones that made some of her dad's dockworkers look like toothpicks. His torso was bare despite the winter chill, but that wasn't what caught her attention the most. No, instead her gaze focused on the metal mask applied to his face, shaped into a facsimile of a roaring dragon.
Lung.
The terror of the docks, the Dragon of Kyushu. Her gaze drifted to the stylized dragons that painted the walls of the decrepit buildings. She had seen them, but she hadn't paid much attention to them. How far had she traveled into ABB territory without realizing it?
He was talking to a small group of ABB gang members who were listening with varying degrees of uncertainty and fear. But none of their fears could compare to the one that burned Lung down to the very core of who he was, like a set stain on a shirt, it was something that would never go away.
It wasn't like the fleeting terror of the gang members who feared he would kill them on the spot if they failed, this was a much more deep-seated fear. This had been the fear that had shaped him into the monster he was now, an uncaring brute who terrorize a city because he could.
He was just like Sophia.
Taylor could feel her anger simmering as she took note of Lung's fear and the woman in the suit. The one thing aside from Leviathan and Yàngbǎn that chilled him to the bones. It governed every action he took, masking itself as a burning rage as he struggled to prevent himself from being in that position ever again.
No, wait, he wasn't like Sophia – he was like her.
He had been scared and beaten down by someone stronger than he was. Only unlike her, he lashed out at the world around him, hurting everyone and everything in a desperate attempt to stave off the pain, like a drowning person flailing in the water, pushing their rescuers under the waves in a desperate attempt to grab some air.
That made her mad far more than she would have liked to admit to herself.
She didn't stay to see what they were talking about, instead slipping back off before she did something rash. Even if people couldn't see her she didn't want to risk earning Lung's ire.
Rage born from fear.
That thought stewed in her mind, was that the reason that all these parahumans turned to crime because they were afraid of something. Was Sophia like this? A scared little girl who was lashing out at the world around them?
Perhaps she should give the girl a visit. It wasn't as if there was anything that she could do that could hurt her any more than she already had. But as she walked off she made sure she remembered the woman in the suit and what she had done to Lung. Perhaps there was something her powers were good for after all.
"Trust me on this Victoria. Lung is afraid of this," Boogeyman said with a grin as she dusted some dust off the suit.
"If you say so," Victoria said, doubt still coloring her tone. Boogeyman decided to let it rest. Trying to convince the girl wouldn't be worth the effort when she could just prove it to her through action.
"In any event, what Lung fears isn't your problem right now. I want you focusing on Coil," Boogeyman said. The parahuman paused, feeling a slight trace of frustration twisting in Victoria's aura. "Problem?"
"Well, I mean, I always thought Coil was small time," she explained, folding her arms across her chest.
"That's what he wants people to think," Boogeyman said. Or at the very least that was the impression that she had gotten of him. She still hadn't been able to find him yet, but then again it wasn't as if she had had much time these last few days. But from what she had gotten from his little pet spy he was more concerned about staying in the shadows that grand displays of power like Kaiser or Lung. "But he's much more influential than he likes people to think he is."
"I dunno, I just feel like I'd be better against Lung more than anything," Victoria said kicking a stray pebble with an almost pouty expression. Boogeyman had to keep her eyes from rolling at the display.
"You want to be at the full front of Lung wrath?" she asked. She raised a hand to cut off whatever Victoria was about to say. "Keep in mind that you won't be the hero of New Wave that he has to hold back on lest he gets a kill order, but instead you'll an independent. Also remember that he's going to be very, very angry with me."
Victoria's mouth clicked shut with a snap, her face rapidly paling at the thought of facing an enraged Lung. She shook her head, blonde hair splaying out against her face.
"That's what I thought," Boogeyman muttered.
"So, what am I going to be doing?" Victoria asked as some color returned to her face. Boogeyman pulled a piece of paper out of her robes and handed it to the blonde haired parahuman. Victoria took the list and read through the names listed on them, brows furrowing in confusion.
"You'll be paying these individuals a little visit while I go against Lung," Boogeyman explained. Victoria's face turned ashen again as she paused at one of the names on the list.
"Some of these are PRT agents," she protested. Boogeyman could feel the fear warping in her mind. She didn't want to be involved in the harming of people that were just trying to do their jobs. Neither did Boogeyman, of course, expect the people on that list weren't doing their jobs.
"Those individuals are all spies for Coil," she said, halting the older girl's half-formed protests in her throat. She could feel the girl's surprise as she began to look at the list with a new eye.
"All of them?"
A rather reasonable question given that it wasn't a very short list. Certainly, far more than should be allowed. Boogeyman wasn't a fool, she knew all too well that trying to worm out every spy from an organization was a futile endeavor. There were just too many points of failure to consider trying that. But Coil's list was far more comprehensive than what she would have expected from a small time operation.
The fact that dear old Lewis had been placed in the perfect position to monitor new parahumans for Coil to snatch up before the Protectorate was concerning enough. It demonstrated that the man knew exactly how to get his men in trusted positions to use them to his advantage.
"Yes. Some of them the Protectorate might have already picked up since they've had Lewis cooling in their cells for the last few days, but most of them should still be free," Boogeyman said. "I want you to pay them a visit and see if they can't be convinced to rat out on their employer."
"Okay, then I'll just fly through their roofs and…"
"No," Boogeyman said, cutting the girl off.
"What do you mean 'no'?" she asked, putting her hands on her hips.
"I'd think that you'd want to avoid connecting your identity to Glory Girl? Or does there happen to be another Alexandria package with an emotion aura somewhere in the city?" Boogeyman asked with a raised eyebrow. Victoria flushed in embarrassment, realizing that she was right. Anything that could connect her to Glory Girl was a risk that she couldn't take if she wanted to keep her family out of this.
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Victoria asked.
"My Nightmares can get you there. If you avoid using your strength too much and don't fly I don't think they'll be able to connect the two of you together," Boogeyman said, gesturing towards one of her steeds. She tried not to relish in the fear that Victoria felt as the beast in question approached them, but it was quite amusing. "Don't be afraid, that only riles them up."
Boogeyman held back an amused grin at the decidedly unamused glare from the blonde parahuman.
"I've never ridden a horse before," Victoria protested.
"And if you ride him you still won't have. They might look like horses, but they aren't – they're physical manifestations of nightmares. They won't act like horses, so don't expect to watch a video to get some help," Boogeyman pointed out.
"They're nightmares?" Victoria asked, a slightly pensive concern entering her aura. "Are you sure you're not just projecting?"
Boogeyman blinked in surprise, not quite understanding what Victoria was talking about. "What?"
"Studies show that parahumans, particularly those with projection based Master powers, tend to rationalize their powers as something that they really aren't and then project that belief onto them. You see it in people that think they're descended from gods or spirits, or those that think their projections are the ghosts of their loved ones," Victoria explained, earning another surprised blink from Boogeyman. Victoria gave her an amused smirk. "I'm not just a dumb blonde, I am taking college level parahuman studies."
"Right," Boogeyman said, still trying to process what had just happened. It wasn't as if she believed that Victoria was stupid, but that just seemed out of character from the energetic and headstrong girl that she knew. "Well, they're nightmares."
That much she knew with absolute certainty, right down to her bones. She wasn't sure how she exactly knew that information and if she tried to explain it the girl would probably think she was crazy. But she knew that these were physical manifestations of people's nightmares. Fear made real.
"You're sure you don't need my help with Lung?" Victoria asked as she put a hesitant hand on the Nightmare's snout. The beast snorted in content as she began to stroke his sandy form.
"No, I'll be fine on my own. Besides, it's time for Deimos to make her first appearance," Boogeyman said with a grin.
Boogeyman dropped out of the shadows cautiously, eyeing the room around her for any surprises. It wouldn't do to go through all this trouble and planning only to be thwarted by a stray booby trap. It had taken her some time tracking this place down, thought she had to admit it had been easier that she had initially thought it would have been. Though she supposed the threat of Lung would have been enough to deter most investigations into the man's personal life. Not seeing any booby traps that might endanger her, Boogeyman pulled her cargo out of the shadow zone, careful not to make too much noise, lest she wake the sleeping dragon.
He is no dragon.
The room in question was actually quite nice given they were in the middle of gang territory. Though given who the occupant was she supposed that was a given. Why would Lung settle for anything less than the best when it came to his own lodgings? Who cared about the people trying to scrape by a living when he had much more important things to do like laze on the couch all day while his minions stole people's hard-earned money.
He wasn't a dragon, he was a leech, only seeking to fulfill his own desires. Even his own men were nothing more than pawns to the man, tools to obtain even more wealth. She bit back a growl at the small stack of bills on his desk. Small to him anyway, to anyone else it would have been enough for two or three months. Boogeyman glared at the man sprawled out across his huge bed with a glare that could have warped steel.
Let's see how much you like this, she thought as she adjusted the mannequin. Taking a deep breath Boogeyman allowed herself to become intangible, not quite shadow, but not quite solid either. Instead, she was more of a floating liquid, a dark shape in the air. She attached herself to the plastic structure, seeping through the false skin and into the very core. She could feel herself spread out along it, seizing control of the manmade creation.
It was odd looking through the eyes of the of the device, particularly since it had no eyes. Her vision was still centered around where its eyes would be if it was a real person, but she could move them around the body as if they were on a track. Her gaze twisted around the room every which way, checking that there were no booby traps set to snare any unsuspected visitors. There weren't any, but she supposed that Lung wouldn't sully his room with such 'underhanded' devices. Never mind that he had about half a dozen armed guards in the building ready to wake him up at a moment's notice, or the security cameras on each floor. Though she supposed that the threat of waking Lung up was threat enough to keep even the most foolish neo-Nazi from attacking this place, assuming they even knew what it was for.
The joints of the mannequin creaked in slight protest as she flexed them a little, testing to make sure that they worked. They weren't exactly designed to move like a real person, but they were good enough for this. She picked up the leftover drugs from the Merchants, careful to get a good grip on them. The last thing she needed was for this entire thing to fall apart because she had slippery hands. She froze as Lung's form twitched a bit, though she allowed herself to relax as nothing more came from it.
She made her way across the room and came to a stop by the sleeping man's bed. The mountain of a human being was resting peacefully, completely unaware of what was about to happen to him. She was extremely tempted to try and run a spear through his heart and just be done with it, but she was uncertain how much of his regeneration he kept while in this form. He got stronger the longer he fought, but details on how strong he actually was were rather scarce. There were some rumors that he could survive his head being chopped off, but she sincerely doubted the authenticity of those whispers. More likely the man was spreading tales about himself to make people less willing to fight him. She might have approved his use of fear if she didn't find him utterly disgusting.
It had been his men that had scarred Emma's psyche and turned her into a shivering wreck. While Sophia had been the one to twist her into something else, it had been the ABB that had shattered the girl that she had once called her sister. He was going to pay for that.
Boogeyman raised the chunk of drugs above his mouth, and then shoved down with as much force as her borrowed shell could muster.
As the drugs were shoved through his lips the man's eyes popped open, raw panic coursing down his body. She watched as his eyes locked with her form, and the panic redoubled, this time laced with anger and rage. The arms of the mannequin snapped as the man shot up from the bed, spewing the drugs that infested his mouth out as he gasped for air. She watched for a moment as his panicked breaths became more controlled, and the fear that had gripped his heart like an icy claw now gave way to hate. But despite that, she could still feel it buried underneath there, like seeds of a fruit.
"You," he rumbled his voice like two boulders being smashed together, his tone heavy with anger and hate older than his chosen name. The temperature of the room started to rise as he turned around, already starting to grow an inch or two. "Have made a very grave mistake."
Taylor made her body take a minute step forward, and for a brief moment, she saw Lung flinch from the sight of her. It was hardly anything, barely even noticeable unless you were her, but she knew exactly what it meant. Lung was afraid.
Even lacking his fire and flames his eyes blazed like a pair of infernos, promising death and pain to her. Boogeyman slipped from the mannequin, letting it crumple to the floor as she retook her physical form. The hatred in Lung's eyes only increased as she gave him a mocking smile.
"Well then Kenta, show me your rage. Show me how weak you are, and know that everything that you have done as been in fear of her," Boogeyman said, waving a hand towards the mannequin. Even as she did that she warped her voice to that of the woman's or at the very least what he remembered the woman's voice to be. She could fell the chill of terror from the man even as his white-hot anger reached a boiling point. Lung let out a bestial roar despite his still human appearance, his face twisted into a rictus of rage as he charged forward, arms outstretched, ready to crush her skull in the palms of his hands. Boogeyman jumped back into a shadow with a mocking laugh.
She reappeared outside of the apartment complex with a smile, startling the man behind the door on guard duty. She saw him fumble for his pistol, but a quick glare from her and the man was sent scrambling back, no doubt seeking out his now enraged master. Boogeyman craned her neck up to look up at Lung's apartment on the highest story. She could see the faint glow as the man rampaged through his own home, no doubt looking for her. The glass window shattered, raining down bits and pieces all around her, but she paid them no mind as Lung's head popped out, glaring down at her.
"You," he growled, soft but strong, the promise of pain and death and so much worse. She could see that he was considering jumping straight down to kill her, but she could feel his hesitation of trying to jump from that height. He also knew that the less he was fighting her, the slower he would ramp up. By the time he got to the bottom of the building he would lose what little steam he had already built up and would have to start again.
"What's the matter Lung? Scared of the truth? That for all your power you're still weak? You didn't climb a waterfall to get yours," Boogeyman said, twisting her lips into a sneer. That last little bit had been a result of a day's search into any information about Lung that she could find. Unfortunately, the internet was the internet and she had found herself sidetracked by a few legends about dragons. But still, it was proving to be a boon since she knew how Lung got his powers.
"Power born out of defeat, no wonder you're so weak. How does it feel to know that for all that you have done, for all the power you have tried to grasp at, you're still beholden to the woman in the suit?" Boogeyman asked, relishing in the tremor of fear that racked down Lung's spine at the mention of the woman.
Lung screamed, literally howling in rage as he turned away from the window. She could practically hear him bounding down the stairs, ready to rip her to shreds for her insolence. She could feel the fear of the man who had been moving to warn his master of her cut short as Lung shoved him aside with all the care of a broken toy, shattering the man's neck as he struck the wall. The last thing he felt was an unrelenting terror at the sight of his enraged leader charged down the flight of stairs like a mad bull.
Boogeyman watched as the man erupted from the building with the rage of a madman, tearing at her like a wild beast. She backed off, dissolving into shadows and putting some distance between the two of them.
"Sorry Lung, you'll have to try better than that," she said as she reformed her body, Phobia reforming underneath her.
"You will die," the man uttered. Not a threat but a singular promise. In his mind, she would suffer tenfold what she put him through, and even that would not be enough. It was almost amusing to her that Lung thought that he could put her through anything more than she had already been through.
He knows nothing of pain.
"Come then, Lung. Let me show you how weak you are," Boogeyman said, holding her arms out as if to invite the man in for a hug. The man let out another howl as his body grew about an inch, throwing himself at the cape and her steed.
"Let me show you the truth."
Even Lung knows fear.
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